He claimed: “Whenever you keep winning and the people have the medals, it is hard to see them all having the hunger to want more.

"Sometimes you can’t replace the old hands.”

Former Footballer of the Year Bernard Brogan has been ruled out with a cruciate knee injury while another of Dublin’s most valuable assets, Diarmuid Connolly, remains absent from the panel with no guarantee he will return in 2018.

While admitting Dublin are “in pole position” the loss of that key duo, Harte believes, is enough to dent the Dublin juggernaut.

“New ones, no matter how talented they may be, they don’t have the experience, the guile of the boys they are replacing.

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“There is a wee window of opportunity, where they are maybe a wee bit below the high standards of where they have been over the past couple of years.

“We can only hope.”

Most of Dublin’s opponents may be quietly accepting that a four-in-a-row is a growing inevitability, with their desire to be recognised as one of the GAA’s all-time great teams a compelling driving force. Making them unbeatable, even.